Preseason play promises excitement

  Daily Bruin File Photo Sophomore outside hitter
Cameron Mount goes for the kill in a men’s
volleyball game last season.

By Pauline Vu
Daily Bruin Senior Staff

They have just one day left of preseason competition, so expect
the play to be fierce.

Friday the men’s volleyball team heads to The Pyramid of
Long Beach State for an all-day tournament, where they’ll
play four matches. The NCAA allows only four days of preseason
competition, and the defending champion Bruins used three of those
days at last weekend’s Husky Dino Cup in Calgary, Canada.

USC and Long Beach, who will also be at the tournament, have
also used three of their four days.

“It’s the last day of competition for Long Beach and
the last day for “˜SC,” UCLA head coach, Al Scates said.
“For all three teams this is it. The teams will be ready to
play well.”

In the first match against UC San Diego at 9 a.m., the
second-string will take on the Tritons. Then at 11 a.m., the
first-string will start against UC Irvine and again against USC at
1 p.m.

At 7:30 p.m., senior middle blocker Adam Naeve, junior outside
hitter Matt Komer, sophomores middle blocker Scott Morrow, setter
Rich Nelson and outside hitter Cameron Mount, and freshman opposite
Jonathan Acosta will start in the feature match of the day against
Long Beach State.

“I think it’ll be interesting to see how the other
teams have progressed with only four weeks of practice,”
Naeve said.

All games will be played with rally scoring, in which any and
all kills or errors result in a point. The first three matches will
be best two out of three games, while the final one will be played
according to Olympic rules, in which the winner must take three out
of five.

“I’m excited,” said Acosta, a true freshman.
“It’s been great playing with the best players in the
nation.”

When asked if he had the starting opposite position locked up,
he smiled and said, “I don’t know. I’m working on
it, but I still have to work hard.”

Last weekend the Bruins had an impressive showing at the Husky
Dino Cup, going 2-2 there and taking second in the tournament.
Though they narrowly lost the championship match, they made a huge
improvement throughout the course of the event.

“We look good,” Naeve said. “We still have a
ways to go until we’re a great team but, you know, we never
look that good in the fall.”

Scates is enthused about how his team played at the Husky Dino
Cup against Calgary. So enthused that he mentioned that same phrase
three times.

“I know,” he said when that was pointed out to him.
“I’m saying it again because it’s shocking.
I’m never happy after we lose any match, but I was after
Calgary.”

He pointed out that the Bruins are still finding their passing
game.

“We didn’t have 95 percent of our passing game with
Matt Davis and Mark Williams out,” he said.

Davis, last year’s Libero of the Year, graduated, while
Williams, who played in the Olympics for Australia as the starting
libero, is resting during the fall because of a pulled stomach
muscle.

“Once our passing comes around we’ll be a lot
better,” Naeve said. “I’d say that was probably
the weakest part of our game.”

So far Scates is still struggling with finding a starting
libero.

At the Husky Dino, freshman Paul Jocas and sophomore Ryan Kittel
played. On Friday, Scates will bring two more liberos, junior David
Lin, who played last year, and freshman Adam Schrader.

Those four will play throughout the morning and the coaches will
decide who plays at night.

“I’m gonna be looking at them during the day,”
Scates said. “(Kittel’s) a reliable passer but
we’ll see what the other three can do.”

Although the tournament is just a preseason event, the Trojans
and the 49ers have several returning starters and some key
transfers who should bolster their lineup.

“They’re probably two of the toughest teams in the
league,” Naeve said. “Besides us they’ll probably
be the teams to beat this year.”

Which is why Friday’s tournament should be so
exciting.

“It’s just a little forecast of what’s to
come,” Scates said.

Admission to the first three matches is free. Admission to the
final match is $5.